Your Right to Know

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Who was the fourth American citizen killed by a U.S. drone strike?

The Obama administration revealed on Wednesday that Jude Kenan Mohammad had died in a strike in
Pakistan’s tribal region in 2011. But not much has been reported about him.

Mohammad was part of an eight-member group based in North Carolina accused of planning terrorist
attacks.

He was indicted in 2009 as part of an alleged plot to attack the U.S. Marine Corps base in
Quantico, Va.

The other seven members were arrested, but authorities said Mohammad had fled to Pakistan to
join Islamic militants.

Pakistani intelligence officials arrested Mohammad on Oct. 15, 2008, after he tried to enter
Mohmand, a tribal area considered a sanctuary for al-Qaida and Taliban militants, without
permission.

Mohammad, who was 20 at the time, was carrying a laptop, a dagger and Islamic books, the
security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Mohammad’s family said he was visiting
his Pakistani father, Taj Mohammad, who owned a gas station in the northwestern city of
Peshawar.

U.S. consular officials in Pakistan visited the American and provided him with consular
assistance.

Mohammad appeared in court in Shabqadar in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Oct. 17,
2008. Police who interrogated Mohammad said he was not cooperative, and he claimed he was being
mistreated. But they didn’t report any allegation that he was seeking to join militants.

Mohammad was eventually booked on charges of weapons possession and traveling without proper
documents but was released on bail. He didn’t show up for his next court date.

It’s unclear what he did between then and when he was killed in the U.S. drone strike in late
2011 in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal area.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Attorney General Eric Holder said only one of the U.S.
citizens killed in drone strikes beyond war zones — Anwar al-Awlaki, who had ties to at least three
attacks planned or carried out on U.S. soil — was specifically targeted by American forces.

The other two Americans were Samir Khan, who was killed in the same strike that killed al-Awlaki
in September 2011 in Yemen, and Awlaki’s son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was also killed in
Yemen.